We built Plaid to create a new financial infrastructure that allows consumers to link their bank accounts to digital applications, addressing the outdated banking system that required in-person visits for most transactions.

The shift in consumer perception from viewing fintech apps as risky to seeing them as safe has been significant, as evidenced by my mom's trust in a product powered by Plaid.

In January 2020, we announced that Visa was acquiring Plaid for over $5 billion, which was the result of months of negotiations and interest from Visa as an investor.

After the acquisition fell through, Plaid's business continued to grow significantly, leading to a valuation of $13 billion in a subsequent fundraising round.

Our strategy has always been to build the API for bank account linking, but we also aim to leverage the data we collect to create valuable analytics products that can transform financial services.

We've developed three major new product areas: anti-fraud tools that analyze user patterns across apps, a real-time credit system that uses real-time data to assess credit risk, and improved bank payment analytics.

We provide direct observations of millions of US consumers' purchases, allowing investors to find answers quickly without the need for surveys.

Initially, we used screen scraping to collect financial data from banks, as many did not have APIs in place, but we aimed to partner with banks to create a more efficient system.

As we evolved, we expanded our product offerings to include credit verification and bank payment infrastructure, allowing for seamless financial transactions and identity verification.